An estimated 600,000 people gathered in East Timor for a Mass led by Pope Francis, the first pope to visit the country since it gained independence from Indonesia in 2002.
SINGAPORE — Pope Francis arrived in Singapore on Wednesday from East Timor, on the final leg of an ambitious 12-day journey across Southeast Asia and Oceania. The Aero Dili flight carrying the pope and his entourage arrived in the city-state for a two-night visit that will include a speech to political authorities and a Mass at the National Stadium, which the Vatican expects to draw some 55,000 people.
92 million people, according to the Vatican. The pope arrived from Dili, East Timor’s capital, where on Tuesday he celebrated Mass with an estimated 600,000 of the country’s 1.3 million population, in one of the largest ever turnouts as a proportion of a country’s population for a Mass during a papal visit. On landing in Singapore, Francis was met by Edwin Tong, the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, and received flowers from local schoolchildren.
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